greenTYPEWRITERS presents Sasquatch! Festival 2010 :: DAY ONE

Sasquatch! Festival takes place over the Memorial Day long weekend at the Gorge in Washington state and has been home to many incredible acts like the Beastie Boys, Pixies, Björk, the Flaming Lips, Manu Chao, R.E.M., Explosions in the Sky, Beck, Blackalicious, and Nine Inch Nails since it's small beginning in 2002.

This year the festival added the likes of Pavement, Massive Attack and Ween to it's history of star acts and not one of the groups disappointed their headlining duties. Luckily for you greenT was there dancing and singing through the sun, rain, booze and unprescribed goodies that make this particular festival a communal entity of fun rather than a place where the audience is too busy acting too cool to fucking dance (coughLOLLAPALOOZA///PITCHFORKcough).

Here's a breakdown of our day-by-day activities and bands that blew our minds and knees out.. and those that were less than spectacular:

DAY ONE:
Our day opened early with Brother Ali ("Blah Blah Blah" live at Sasquatch) performing on the main stage at 1:05 and although a couple of us had seen him down in Cali for Coachella a few years back, he is on the top his game right now sporting a slick white beard and DJ Snuggles, who was a funny dude and decent beat-boxer.

After setting the day on a high note, we wandered over to check out London's Mumford & Sons ("Little Lion Man" live at Sasquatch) and Arkansa's Portugal. The Man. Both acts were great but failed to live up to Brother Ali's uplifting performance as we scorched in the hot sun.. so.. moving on.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros ("Home" live at Sasquatch) were up on the Big Foot stage next and the crowd. went. crazy. Despite a short set, the band of gypsies put on a fun show and set the crowd ablaze during their much anticipated "Home":


Sorry for the terrible filming.. twas the first video of the festival!

Next up was Broken Social Scene ("World Sick" live at Sasquatch) on the main stage and they had a great set including about half of Forgiveness Rock Record and half from their previous two. The collective was definitely a highlight of the festival.

After a slight walk through the Miike Snow crowd it came time to decide between Why?, the National, the Very Best, and the Hold Steady. Why? has been a long time favourite here and the Hold Steady has been seen before so the plan was to watch Why?, leave a bit early, then catch the end of the National set.. but all things came to a halt when Why? ("The Hollows" live in NC and Sasquatch) compeletely blew everyone out of the water. Their set was full of all the bangers that I wanted to hear and I have never seen stage presence like that of lead singer Yoni Wolf before. I was literally laughing to tears at his Rosie Perez dance from Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

Why? - The Vowels, pt. 2:

We were so blown away with Why? that the two songs that we did hear from the National felt drab and boring.. something I feel all to familiar with at times listening to the National.

Luckily Vampire Weekend ("A-Punk" live at Sasquatch) were coming on soon and they kept the energy levels high as the entire ampitheatre erupted into dance throughout their whole set.

The sun had set at some point during Vampire Weekend's fun-as-hell set and we all looked at each other with fire in our eyes.. Not to be let down by more downer rock, the greenT crew skipped My Morning Jacket and set off to watch a great set by Z-Trip (live at Sasquatch) where we danced until there was no more moisture to sweat out of our bodies.. and closing down Saturday night was the incredibly needed live visuals of Toronto's Deadmau5 ("Sometimes Things Get, Whatever" live at Sasquatch). Can't say that the tunes matched the lights but I'll have to check out more of his stuff to decide.. and who cares when you're having fun?


..and that was how our day one looked.

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